I got a signed copy from the new book by George R. R. Martin, Winds of the Winter. The wait is over!
Winds of the Winter – Signed Copy
Tag: Books
The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett, Book Review
I’ll start writing about this book by comparison. It has the charm of Tress of the Emerald Sea, the worldbuilding of The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin, and the green aesthetic of Jade City by Fonda Lee. I mean, the story feels green, not the book itself. That’s good company for any novel.
The world is GMO-fantasy, where all life is subject to genetic modifications, and the modifications often go out of control. Perhaps one of these insanely potent GMOs, one of the sources of them, or both, are the leviathans. They are Godzilla-like monsters, coming out of the sea every year in a mindless attempt to either destroy all humans or talk to them. Humans are always trying to stop them, structured to sustain an army that can battle with such giant creatures. That’s the world, and the world is just a humble background.
Our main characters, Dinios and Ana, are investigators with peculiar powers. He has a GMO-altered memory that lets him remember everything, and she is smart. Ana and Dinios have to investigate a murder where the victim has a tree growing out of his corpse. How does one even approach a disaster like that? They will figure it out, step by step, by using their superpowers.
The story flows naturally, and the pacing is strong right up until the ending. If there’s one critique, it’s that not every thread needed to be fully explained or wrapped up in detail. I would have preferred a bit more left unsaid for what comes next.
Overall, a fantastic story, a solid 5*, and probably the best book I’ve read this month so far.
Gone Before Goodbye by by Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben, Book Review
I knew it will be a tough book to read because it had bad reviews. It wasn’t easy but wasn’t too bad either.
Alexander Belyaev has a story about a man who is essentially dead but his head is attached to a machine and is still talking. The head is waiting for a compatible headless body so it can be reattached. The story is called Professor Dowell’s Head. You would expect that Gone Before Goodbye is a crime mystery thriller, where we are trying to figure out what happened to the missing person (who’s gone). But it is, in reality, something similar to Belyaev’s stray head.
The book is very well written in most parts, and well translated too. The first 100 pages were excellent; then chaos set in. Maggie, a surgeon who lost her license, is offered redemption if she performs a difficult and illegal surgery. Once she accepts and sells her soul to the devil, people start flying around the globe like there’s no tomorrow and for no clear reason. Perhaps to show off how rich they are.
The resolution is like the head I mentioned. It’s sci-fi and ridiculous. We also have an avatar, living inside a phone, a common trope in present-day sci-fi. These AIs are usually demigods, who can do everything, and so is Maggie’s AI app. Also ridiculous.
Why three stars and not four, for example? Because it is never really clear why anything really happens. The book contains all kinds of cataclysmic and dramatic moments, and not a single one of them is actually necessary for the story. The explanation for everything is that a head is trying to find a body. Characters fly to Russia, billionaire balls are held, some people chase others, while committing grand acts of bravery without any relation to this problem. It’s not exactly a head but you’ll see if you read it. So I felt a disconnect between the great writing style, nice characters, the grandiose scenes, and setup, and the missing link to the actual story.
I could have given it two stars as well because of the publisher’s decision to compact the 350-page book into 300 pages by making the letters tiny and squeezing the letter spacing.
Despite the review, I enjoyed the individual fragments of good writing. 3/5 because of that.
Killman Creek by Rachel Caine, Book Review
Gwen survived the encounter with her husband’s serial killer buddies. Peace didn’t last long. She’s now chased by a worse enemy – a ransom group who produces deepfakes to extort rich people. They’re now after Gwen. She is interesting because her husband is a serial killer who is somehow connected to the group.
Gwen is not helpless, she shoots well, she’s deeply suspicious of everyone and everything, and moves a lot. So in an ideal world, the hackers wouldn’t be able to find her. Unfortunately, the world is not ideal and the wonders of the modern Big Brother have turned against her.
This book is disturbing. It’s like a different point of view to Chris Carter story. There’s blood and horror, and the book is like a scream that never stops. You have Gwen and a few of her friends who are rational, and then you have characters who are acting like victims. They are doing everything possible to sabotage their chances of survival. Buddy, I know this is the first time you see me but please hop in my pretty, white van.
At the end of the day, you don’t buy this book if you have no tolerance to horror. It’s fine but I liked Stillhouse Lake more. I had to skip a few exceptionally silly pages, and I think I missed one of the clues this way. 4.5*/5.
Exit Strategy by Lee Child and Andrew Child, Book Review
Exit Strategy is book 30 of the series about the retired military police officer Jack Reacher, no middle name. Reacher, a 60-something, overweight, and homeless, is traveling the country with a thin stack of cash, a debit card, and a toothbrush, like a modern version of the hitchhiker Arthur Dent. Exit Strategy is also a book from the Murderbot series by Martha Wells. The two books have many things in common, for example there’s no exit strategy at any part of the plot. Actually, Reacher only has one strategy, which involves using his massive size to crush the bad guys, just like the Murderbot.
Book 29 of the series was called In Too Deep. In my review from 2024, I awarded it with 1* and evaluated the whole series as unreadable, probably thanks to the new writer. I remember being surprised that it had over 4 on Goodreads, a mistake the readers have already corrected. Book 30 currently stands at 3.75, the lowest Jack Reacher has ever received. However, this is probably due to the piling disappointment after several sub-par or disastrous books that might’ve discouraged long-term fans of the series from buying it.
Exit Strategy is readable. Reacher crushes bones in a satisfying way. There are no Russians, no three-letter agencies, world-scattering conspiracies, or disposable femme fatales. The villain is some rich dude. This is already a major improvement. The best stories from the earlier years didn’t have complex plots or multiple espionage tropes either.
Reacher enters a town and finds another retired vet, who is in trouble. He forms a small crew to solve the problem in his way, Karateka style. He is, in a sense, still like the old Steven Seagal. Large, static, not very smart, linear, arrogant, quick with the choices. But the book is readable and offers many things the good Reacher books offered, including an unexpected ending that made sense.
I think, despite being sub-par compared to the books before Andrew Child, this is an okay thriller. I hope the duo keeps positive learnings with their next work. 4/5.
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